A form of electronic music that has spiralled out from other forms such as techno and house. Essentially, trance combines a powerful "4-to-the-floor" (or occasionally breakbeat) drumtrack with a strong melodic hookline.

Trance is indisputably one of the most emotional genres that actually exists, because it is all self-interpretation. There are no instrumental or musical limits to trance, and rather than listening to some random guy screaming about his life, associating with a trance progression or hookline is much more deep, and much more personal.

Like other genres, trance has many subgenres, some of which have become very commercialised to the extent where the musical merit of some tracks must be questioned (eg. Flip'n'Fill, Scooter etc.)

At the higher end of the more uplifting, melodic (and relatively popular) styles of trance are DJs such as Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, and Ferry Corsten. These DJs in particular can make beautifully structured mixes their own music, and the music of others, building it into a euphoric collage which spans multiple energy levels, in order to provide the listener with peak/trough feelings, and carry them through numerous emotions and mental states.

The creation and spread of trance music is mainly down to machinery such as the Roland JP-8000 (providing the prominently manipulated supersaw wave), and experimental DJs such as Sasha & John Digweed.

I want to listen to a melodic, energetic form of music that emotionally affects my state of mind. Therefore, I will listen to trance.

The most sublime, divine, advanced music genre known to man, representing a quantum leap in artistic creativity analogous to the development of the frontal lobe in the human brain. Having an IQ below 130 renders one incapable of apreciating, let alone enjoying trance. Being a connoisseur of trance bespeaks of extremely high intelligence and impeccable level of personal sophistication. On the other hand, those who despise trance can uniformly be characterized as primtive troglodytes, closer to ape than man.

To put it simply...The best music ever devolped. Uses a pulse pounding beat and uplifting, euophoric melodies. Trance music can be listened to under any circumstances: Getting pumped b4 a game, get wild at a club or party, speeding down the freeway, Chillin in a lounge, sleeping too, even trippin out...

A type of electronic dance music characterised by a moderately fast tempo (typically 140-155 bpm) and "steady 4" rhythm (as opposed to the more syncopated rhythms commonly found in house, breakbeats, etc.)

Trance has a strong influence from early Detroit techno, but tends to be more dramatic or "emotional" than the minimalism of earlier techno. Common elements in trance include heavy, compressed kick drums, dramatic sweeping pads, and cascading synth arpeggios.

As with any kind of music, there are a billion sub-classifications possible -- hard trance, psytrance, acid trance, goa trance, etc. Trance has been one of the most popular forms of club music over the past few years, and has arguably produced more mainstream appeal (Oakenfold, Van Dyk, etc.) than most other electronic sub-genres.

"She spun a sick trance set in the big room last night; lots of distorted 909s and squelchy basslines, none of this shite that sounds like a car commercial."